contagious Christ-focus

"Your goal is always to make your Christ-focus contagious – to just one person."

[Ann Voskamp, from "The Real Truth about Boring Men -- and the Women Who Live with Them: Redefining Boring"]

through what he suffered

"Although [Jesus] was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered." 

Hebrews 5:8

the dark chaos of our inner being

"In the morning I will stand and see my God, who sheds the light of salvation on my face, who will breathe life even into our mortal bodies through the Spirit who dwells in us and has been mercifully hovering over the dark chaos of our inner being."  

[Augustine, Confessions, Book XIII]

Our true place is where we find rest.

...Why only of [the Holy Spirit] who alone is said to be your Gift? Because, I think, in your Gift we find rest, and there we enjoy you. Our true place is where we find rest. We are borne toward it by love, and it is your good Spirit who lifts up our sunken nature from the gates of death. In goodness of will is our peace. A body gravitates to its proper place by its own weight. This weight does not necessarily drag it downward, but pulls it tot he place proper to it: thus fire tends upward, a stone downward. Drawn by their weight, things seek their rightful places. If oil is poured into water, it will rise to the surface, but if water is poured onto oil it will sink below the oil; drawn by their weight, things seek their rightful places. They are not at rest as long as they are disordered, but once brought to order they find their rest. Now, my weight is my love, and wherever I am carried, it is this weight that carries me. Your Gift sets us afire and we are borne upward; we catch his flame and up we go. In our hearts we climb those upward paths, singing the songs of ascent. By your fire, your beneficent fire, are we inflamed, because we are making our way up to the peace of Jerusalem. For I rejoiced when I was told, 'We are going to the Lord's house.' There shall a good will find us a place, that we may have no other desire but to abide there for ever."  

[Augustine, Confessions]

choice, not chance

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” 

[Aristotle]

I the LORD have created it.

"Shower, O heavens, from above,
and let the clouds rain down righteousness;
let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit;
let the earth cause them both to sprout;
I the LORD have created it."

Isaiah 45:8

what we would prefer not to talk about

 I think literature is best when it's voicing what we would prefer not to talk about.

[Rick Moody]

value grief, sacrifice, weakness, and exclusion

they never lose a minute

“Sooner or later, the great men turn out to be all alike. They never stop working. They never lose a minute. It is very depressing.”

[V.S. Pritchett]

10 Resolutions for Mental Health

Andy Goldsworthy

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me. 

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end. I think this will save me from the cynicism expressed by Bertrand Russell before his death when he said: "There is darkness without, and when I die there will be darkness within. There is no splendor, no vastness anywhere, only triviality for a moment, and then nothing." 

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities. I shall not be fool enough to suppose that trouble and pain are wholly evil parentheses in my existence, but just as likely ladders to be climbed toward moral and spiritual manhood. 

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality. I shall know what I am doing when I abstract, which of course I shall often have to do. 

5. I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work. 

6. I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence. 

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder." 

8. I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music. 

9. I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now. 

10. Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

 [Ten Resolutions from a lecture by Dr. Clyde Kirby, Source: Desiring God]

the huge solace of thinking that...we are not going to be judged

"Religion, opium for the people. To those suffering pain, humiliation, illness, and serfdom, it promised a reward in an afterlife. And now we are witnessing a transformation. A true opium for the people is a belief in nothingness after death—the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murder, we are not going to be judged." 

[Czeslaw Milosz]

what I am seeking is a life of happiness

Bookmark by my amazingly talented friend Amanda Tanner.

Check out her Etsy shop at Let's All Make Believe.

your maker is your husband

"As we have been saying all month the natural tendency of the human heart is to take good things into ultimate things, and in ancient cultures and nonwestern traditional cultures of today the family thing is the ultimate thing. it is what we have been calling, essentially, an idol. and therefore, women who don't have children because they aren't married or can't have children because of some physical impediment felt worthless and were regarded as worthless. so if you want to further the example of that you can go into the book of Genesis where Rachel the wife of Jacob is seeking to have children and can't have children and she says, 'Give me children, or I will die!' And that about sums it up in those cultures. Now some of you saying,  I know about this: those ancient cultures really oppressed women. And you're right, but I'm glad you brought that up actually... Why do you think that in those cultures women were not troubled with eating disorders at all? The point is that all cultures are fallen. And that all cultures oppress because here is what they do: every single culture put in front of men and women certain objects and says, 'You don't have them you don't have worth! You don't have them, you don't have significance! If you don't have them, your existence isn't justified! You must have them!' Ancient and traditional cultures have collective idols: you have to have a family.  

Modern western culture has individualistic idols. Modern cultures say that your worth is completely dependent upon your individual assets: looks, career, money. If you don't have that, you're nothing. When Rachel says, 'Give me children, or I die!' she is saying childlessness means psychological and social death. It's very telling. If you build your identity on anything more than God, and you fail to get it, it's psychological and social death. And every culture that ever existed and and exists today is telling you to build your identity on something. Therefore, every culture is going to oppress you and crush you into the ground because every culture is cooperating with a part of our heart that wants to be its on Savior and Lord and to justify itself. And it's almost impossible when everybody else is going after these objects to not go along with them and to not be just as enslaved and crushed as everyone else in the culture. I say almost impossible because God says there's a way out. There's a way to emotional and inner freedom and cultural freedom.... He says, Your maker is your husband. Your maker is your husband. Your maker is your husband." 

- Tim Keller

other ways to proclaim the good news

"The Bible does clearly teach the right of property, but both the Old Testament and the New Testament put a tremendous stress on the compassionate use of that property. If at each place where the employer was a Bible-believing Christian the world could see that less profit was being taken so that the workers would have appreciably more than the 'going rate' of pay, the gospel would have been better proclaimed throughout the whole world than if the profits were the same as the world took and then large endowments were given to Christian schools, missions, and other projects. This is not to minimize the centrality of preaching the gospel to the whole world, nor to minimize missions; it is to say that the other is also a way to proclaim the good news." 

[Francis Schaeffer]

My sin has been erased. I'll never be the same.

[Citizens, "Made Alive"]

only men sit down to think about what is important and not urgent

"In the first place, [men] think about problems that there is absolutely no need for them to solve so far as their biological needs, their struggle for survival, are concerned: the problems of mathematics, the problems of philosophy, the problems of any of the theoretical or speculative sciences. And in the second place, the manner in which they think about those problems is quite different. An animal, when thinking about or solving a problem, is active. He uses his senses, uses his limbs, runs around. But a man thinks in a different manner. You all I’m sure have the image of the human thinker. It is given us by that statue of Rodin’s which is here in San Francisco, Le Penseur. If you think about that famous statue, I want you to notice something. There is the posture of human thought. And what you see about that posture is intense bodily inactivity. Only men sit down to think about what is important and not urgent."

[Mortimer Adler, How to Think about the Great Ideas] 

Aristotle

faster than death

"It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death." - Socrates, Apology

many sacred veils

"We cannot be enlightened by the divine rays except they be hidden within the covering of many sacred veils." - Dionysius

the tree of life to all, but onely me

"O all ye who passe by, behold and see;
Man stole the fruit, but I must climbe the tree;
The tree of life to all, but onely me..." 

[George Herbert]

in the morning it's always Leah

"Most people if they really learn to look into their own heart would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love or first think of some foreign country or first take up some subject that excites us are longings which no marriage, no travel, no learning can ever really satisfy. I am not speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages or failures of holidays and so on. I’m speaking of the very best possible ones. There is always something we have grasped at. There’s always something in that first moment of longing but fades away in the reality. The spouse may be a good spouse. The scenery has been excellent. It turned out to be a good job. But it’s evaded us. In the morning it’s always Leah."  

[C.S. Lewis]

bow to the Christ in you

"To really get the best of frustration, you must turn it into celebration. If you stop being frustrated and start celebrating, you enter a whole different space, and so will your circumstances. You can make your circumstances bow to the Christ in you." 

- Graham Cooke

The Turin Horse

"Theirs is the moment...Nature, infinite silence."

Good movie to watch as I am beginning the Philosophy & Theology segment at St. John's this summer...

Vintage Beach Photos

Circa 1910: Two young girls on Brighton beach, about to have a cigarette. (General Photographic Agency/Getty Images)

See more vintage beach photos here.

he told me I have a soul

I feel my shame inside me like a knife

He told me that I have a soul

How does he know?

What spirit came to move my life?

Is there another way to go?

I am reaching, but I fall

And the night is closing in

And I stare into the void

To the whirlpool of my sin

I'll escape now from that world

[from Les Miserables]

that's what books will not tell me

This is from the novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. It was written in 1891.

Tess: "Sometimes I feel I don't want to know anything more about it than I know already." 

Angel: "Why not?" 

"Because what's the use of learning that I am one of a long row only— finding out that there is set down in some old book somebody just like me, and to know that I shall only act her part; making me sad, that's all. The best is not to remember that your nature and your past doings have been just like thousands' and thousands', and that your coming life and doings 'll be like thousands's and thousands'."

"What, really, then, you don't want to learn anything?" 

"I shouldn't mind learning why— why the sun do shine on the just and the unjust alike," she answered, with a slight quaver in her voice. "But that's what books will not tell me."

Sonata in G

Givanni Paolo Cima, Sonata in G

where lichen scurries up the trunk of a tree that needs it

"You ask

to lead me to me
to lead you next

to colors all wet:
bark saturated brown,
brown-green

where lichen scurries up the trunk
of a tree that needs it.

You make me wonder about thirst,
the way things work together.
Boughs once empty fill with birds

in rapid flickering flight until beat, wingbeat,
winged threat: a magpie I try to wish away.

I ask, do not disappear.
That is no kind of apology
and I have never been a forgiver.

The green part of me never leaves
however I find that it remains with you.
However I find it in you

you must remember I am not a soft woman.
You’ll seek the mother in me
but expect to see splinters,
rolled margins.

Together we have never been so alone,
like ladders, like messengers with another
answer. The ink-stained hand holds

heartache no longer. It’s been set
and pressed down, mapped & scattered."

[Joan Naviyuk Kane, "Late Successional"]

draw back a little, and have a cup of tea

"Stand at the brink of the abyss of despair, and when you see that you cannot bear it anymore, draw back a little, and have a cup of tea." 

[Elder Sophrony of Essex]

Truth without having been reached by logic

[Mortimer Adler, Aristotle for Everybody]

at home in the bathtub

Conversation between Scout Finch and Miss Maudie Atkinson in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee:

“You know old Mr. Radley was a foot-washing Baptist-”
“That’s what you are, ain’t it?”
"My shell’s not that hard, child. I’m just a Baptist.”
“Don’t you all believe in foot-washing?”
“We do. At home in the bathtub.”

birth is nothing but...

by V. Rae

 "Birth is nothing but the separation of one living body from another." 

[Mortimer Adler, Aristotle for Everybody]

in a word, eager purity and weary virtue

In we shuffle, hooded amplitudes,
scapulared brooms, a stray earring, skin-heads
and flowing locks, blind in one eye,
hooked-nosed, handsome as a prince
(and knows it), a five-thumbed organist,
an acolyte who sings in quarter tones,
one slightly swollen keeper of the bees,
the carpenter minus a finger here and there,
our pre-senile writing deathless verse,
a stranded sailor, a Cassian scholar,
the artist suffering the visually
illiterate and indignities unnamed,
two determined liturgists. In a word,
eager purity and weary virtue.
Last of all, the Lord Abbot, early old
(shepherding the saints is like herding cats).
These chariots and steeds of Israel
make a black progress into church.
A rumble of monks bows low and offers praise
to the High God of Gods who is faithful forever. 

[Kilian McDonnell, "The Monks of St. John's File in for Prayer"]

my heart only has entrances

"My heart only has entrances. It doesn’t have exits. Whoever enters remains there. Whatever he may do, I love him the same as I loved him when he first entered into my heart. I pray for him and seek his salvation."

[Elder Epiphanios]

love quell my doubt and dread

Father whate’er of earthly bliss
Thy sovereign hand denies
Accepted at Thy throne of grace
Let this petition rise 

Let the sweet hope that thou art mine
My life and death attend
Thy presence through my journey shine
And crown my journey’s end 

Give me a calm, a thankful heart
From every murmur free
The blessings of Thy grace impart
And make me live to Thee 

You raise your hand to still the storms
That rage inside my head
Revive my heart with gratitude
Love quell my doubt and dread 

Give me a sure and rested soul
From every fear relieve
The spirit’s power and presence mine
To ever comfort me 

Give me a sure, a restful heart
From every fear relieve
Thy spirit’s power and presence mine
To ever comfort me. 

Give me a calm, a thankful heart
From every murmur free
The blessings of thy grace impart
And make me live to thee. 

[Anne Steele & Sandra McCracken, "Petition"]

the language is a bluff

Le Penseur by Auguste Rodin, 1902

"I’m always amused that so many social studies or science concepts must be, in about equal parts, 'described,' others 'analyzed,' or 'discussed.' It is perfectly plain that these verbs were assigned arbitrarily and that the language is a bluff; our tests never ask students to truly analyze or explain or discuss anything. They ask students to choose the correct answer on multiple choice items... " 

[Mike Schmoker]

full, ready, exact

“Reading maketh a full man;
conference a ready man;
and writing an exact man."

[Francis Bacon] 

our understanding of them is primitive

"It is not that the primitive Eskimos are simple, but that our understanding of them is primitive."

[Marshall Shalins, paraphrased in Fienup-Riordan in Eskimo Essays] 

Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor

This is the next song I want to learn on the piano. Breathtaking.

we must understand Jerusalem and Athens

All the hopes that we entertain in the midst of the confusions and dangers of the present are founded positively or negatively, directly or indirectly on the experiences of the past. Of these experiences the broadest and deepest, as far as we Western men are concerned, are indicated by the names of the two cities Jerusalem and Athens. Western man became what he is and is what he is through the coming together of biblical faith and Greek thought. In order to understand ourselves and to illuminate our trackless way into the future, we must understand Jerusalem and Athens.

[Leo Strauss] 

an idealized image of ourselves

"...[We have a] desire to see hunting societies in general and Eskimos in particular as an original, primitive image of ourselves. The point is not to replace the image of the peaceful Eskimo with a violent one. To understand interpersonal violence and politically aggressive acts by Eskimos today, however, it is essential to understand the interpersonal hostilities and political alliances that were forged during the period of bow-and-arrow wars. Our representation of the Eskimo is especially important to understand because we have modeled our image of Eskimos, perhaps more than that of any other people, on an idealized image of ourselves."

[Ann Fienup-Riordan, Eskimo Essays]

perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, true, righteous

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.
Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

[Psalm 19:7-14]

those whose soul is intelligent

St. Anthony by Piero di Cosimo, c. 1480 

People are generally called intelligent through a wrong use of this word. The intelligent are not those who have studied the sayings and writings of the wise men of old, but those whose soul is intelligent, who can judge what is good and what is evil; they avoid what is evil and harms the soul and intelligently care for and practice what is good and profits the world, greatly thanking God. 

[Anthony of Egypt]

pride = deciding what's cool in advance of the rest of the world

Photo from Hipster Christianity

Pride comes from knowing, and deciding, what’s cool in advance of the rest of the world.

[Mark Greif in his article "The Hipster of the Mirror" in the New York Times]

sat down in one soft descended Hallelujah

My friend David shared this with me. What a heavenly poem.

God, best at making in the morning, tossed
stars and planets, singing and dancing, rolled
Saturn's rings spinning and humming, twirled the earth
so hard it coughed and spat the moon up, brilliant
bubble floating around it for good, stretched holy
hands till birds in nervous sparks flew forth from
them and beasts--lizards, big and little, apes,
lions, elephants, dogs and cats cavorting,
tumbling over themselves, dizzy with joy when
God made us in the morning too, both man
and woman, leaving Adam no time for
sleep so nimbly was Eve bouncing out of
his side till as night came everything and
everybody, growing tired, declined, sat
down in one soft descended Hallelujah.  

Vassar Miller

not by efficiency and economy

‎"Order and organization are an essential part of our life cycle with God and one another, but they must be compelled by love and relationship, not by efficiency and economy."'

[Graham Cooke] 

aspects of a liberal education

1. Ask questions.

"We express our wonder through questions...What kind of a world are we living in? What kind of a world should we be living in?" 

"Questions are the piety of thought." - Martin Heidigger

2. Study the greatest works by the greatest thinkers.

"These authors and ideas have been speaking to one another through all time."

3. A liberal education requires time and space to read, reflect, and discuss.

"It's unfortunate that in the world that we live in today, this digital world, the pace of activity is so great that we're constantly barraged with this relentless activity, but in pursuit of what? We've got to have a purpose, and what this time for reflection allows for students is to take that time to understand the world that we're living in and to prepare themselves for it so that they can go back into it."

4. Our time is not unique.

"The things that really matter haven't changed that much, and you have the opportunity then to go back, to ask the questions that others have asked, to reflect upon them, to read the greatest works by the greatest thinkers, and to learn and think for yourself. This is what a liberal education provides."

i am mediocrity with the name of disaster

I am mediocrity with the name disaster
Called into the chosen ones with a hope in the here and hereafter

[Tim Coons, "The Back Window"] 

await another voice

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice. 

[T.S. Eliot]

everything good comes from You, Father of Lights

Love has a voice.
Love has a name.
Jesus.

["Father of Lights," Jesus Culture]

a society that deserves to be put to the sword

"A society that replaces seven-tier wedding cakes with lo-fat cupcakes is a society that deserves to be put to the sword."

[Joe Queenan, source]

have not seen and yet have believed

Victor by Sybille Peretti

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

[John 20:29] 

a domesticated, harmless Christ

Sayaka Ganz, Emergence 

"One of these days lightning is going to fill the sky from the rising of the sun to its setting, and there is going to appear in the clouds one like a son of man with his mighty angels in flaming fire. And we will see him clearly. And whether from terror or sheer excitement, we will tremble and we will wonder how, how we ever lived so long with such a domesticated, harmless Christ." 

{John Piper, Good News of Great Joy]

in love with the events that are dragging them downward

Without Your eye I wander hopelessly

through my soul like a wayfarer in the night,

in the night’s indistinguishable gloom. 

And the wayfarer in the night falls and picks himself up, 

and what he encounters along the way he calls “events.”

You are the only event of my life, O lamp of my soul.
When a child scurries to the arms of his mother, 

events do not exist for him.
When a bride races to meet her bridegroom,

she does not see the flowers in the meadow, 

nor does she hear the rumbling of the storm, 

nor does she smell the fragrance of the cypresses

or sense the mood of the wild animals–

she sees only the face of her bridegroom; 

she hears only the music from his lips; 

she smells only his soul. 

When love goes to meet love, no events befall it.

Time and space make way for love.

Aimless wanderers and loveless people have events and have history. 

Love has no history, and history has no love.

When someone makes their way down a mountain

or climbs up a mountain without knowing where he is going, 

events are imposed upon him as though they were the aim of his journey. 

Truly, events are the aim of the aimless and the history of the pathless.

Therefore the aimless and the pathless are blocked 

by events and squabble with events. 

But I tranquilly hasten to You, 

both up the mountain and down the mountain, 

and despicable events angrily move out of the way of my footsteps.

If I were a stone and were rolling down a mountain, 

I would not think about the stones against which I was banging, 

but about the abyss at the bottom of the steep slope.

If I were a mountain stream, 

I would not be thinking about my uneven course, 

but about the lake that awaited me.

Truly terrifying is the abyss of those who are in love

with the events that are dragging them downward..."

[from Nikolaj Velimirović's Prayers by the Lake]

completely honest before God

"Take heed how you hear the Gospel. It seems that the Lord wants to say that we hear with our hearts rather than our ears, and that the inner life affects the word of God, either killing it, or making it live and thrive. So whoever wants to hear the word well, understand it, and hold it fast in an honest and good heart should prepare his heart inwardly so that the word may safely take root there, finding in his heart faithfulness to God and truthfulness in word and promise. It is absolutely impossible that anyone should understand what he hears of the word of God, if he is not completely honest before God and has not determined to surrender his life, his responsibilities, his interests, his money, his future, and his own honor and lay them at God’s feet." 

[Fr. Matta El Meskeen, Coptic Orthodox monk]

beautiful.

[Andrew Bird, "Beyond the Valley of the Three White Horses"]

no more bondage to anxiety

Christmas is for freedom. Freedom from the fear of death. He took our nature in Bethlehem, to die our death in Jerusalem, that we might be fearless in Minneapolis. Yes, fearless. Because if the biggest threat to my joy is gone, then why should I fret over the little ones? How can you say (really!), “Well, I’m not afraid to die but I’m afraid to lose my job”? No. No. Think! If death (I said, death!—no pulse, cold, gone!)—if death is no longer a fear, we’re free, really free. Free to take any risk under the sun for Christ and for love. No more bondage to anxiety. If the Son has set you free, you shall be free, indeed!

- John Piper from "Freed by Christmas and Calvary"

gentle and humble = victory

"Jesus said, 'I am gentle and humble.' Those are the two characteristics that always cause us to walk in victory, because they’re the two characteristics the enemy can never possess." - Graham Cooke

Fallen plates.

who wore bones to touch our skin

- Ann Voskamp

where shall wisdom be found?

“But where shall wisdom be found?
And where is the place of understanding?
Man does not know its worth,
and it is not found in the land of the living.
The deep says, ‘It is not in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’

It cannot be bought for gold,
and silver cannot be weighed as its price.
It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
in precious onyx or sapphire.
Gold and glass cannot equal it,
nor can it be exchanged for jewels of fine gold.
No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal;
the price of wisdom is above pearls.
The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it,
nor can it be valued in pure gold.

“From where, then, does wisdom come?
And where is the place of understanding?
It is hidden from the eyes of all living
and concealed from the birds of the air.
Abaddon and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor of it with our ears.’

“God understands the way to it,
and he knows its place.
For he looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When he gave to the wind its weight
and apportioned the waters by measure,
when he made a decree for the rain
and a way for the lightning of the thunder,
then he saw it and declared it;
he established it, and searched it out.
And he said to man,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
and to turn away from evil is understanding.’”

Job 28:12-28

bind up these broken bones

You could plant me like a tree beside a river
You could tangle me in soil and let my roots run wild
And I would blossom like a flower in the desert
But for now just let me cry

You could raise me like a banner in a battle
Put victory like a fire behind my shining eyes
And I would drift like falling snow over the embers
But for now just let me lie

Bind up these broken bones
Mercy bend and breathe me back to life
But not before You show me how to die

Set me like a star before the morning
Like a song that steals the darkness from a world asleep
And I'll illuminate the path You've laid before me
But for now just let me be

Bind up these broken bones
Mercy bend and breathe me back to life
But not before You show me how to die
Oh, not before You show me how to die

So let me go like a leaf upon the water
Let me brave the wild currents flowing to the sea
And I will disappear into a deeper beauty
But for now just stay with me
God, for now just stay with me

- Audrey Assad, "Show Me"

Andrew Bird, "Three White Horses"

Heavenly.

[Andrew Bird, "Three White Horses"]

come ye disconsolate

Come, ye disconsolate, where’er ye languish,
Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel.
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

Joy of the desolate, light of the straying,
Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure!
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying,
“Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot cure.”

Here see the Bread of Life, see waters flowing
Forth from the throne of God, pure from above.
Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing
Earth has no sorrow but heaven can remove.

- Thomas Moore

the only thing that isn't meaningless to me

"I don't claim to have found the truth,
but I know it has found me
The only thing that isn't meaningless to me
is Jesus Christ and the way he set me free
This is all that I have
This is all that I am."

["Conversations", Sara Groves]

16 Principles For People Who Want to Learn

I feel silly even posting about The Intellectual Life by A.G. Sertillanges. Sounds so pretentious! Really though, it's a wonderful book that is incredibly practical. I am not an intellectual nor do I aspire to be by any stretch of the imagination, but I still found the book helpful. It's an incredible work for anyone who simply enjoys learning.

Here are 16 principles that I gathered from The Intellectual Life by A.G. Sertillanges along with quotes. I must have underlined at least half of the book!

And really, I gathered these principles so that I could remember them for myself. This book made me realize I need to make some changes -- a lot of them!

1. Love truth and be committed to finding truth, which is always practical and redemptive.

"We must give ourselves from the heart, if truth is to give itself to us." 

"A true Christian will have ever before his eyes the image of this globe, on which the Cross is planted, on which needy men wander and suffer, all over which the redeeming Blood, in numberless streams, flows to meet them...Every truth is practical...Every truth is life, direction, a way leading to the end of man. And therefore Jesus Christ made this unique assertion: 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.'"

"Truth visits those who love her, who surrender to her..."  

"The source of knowledge is not in books, it is in reality, and in our thought. Books are signposts: the road is older, and no one can make the journey to truth for us. It is not what a writer says that is of first importance to us; the important thing is what is.  

2. If you can, keep two hours a day for the development of your mind.

"You, young man who understand this language and to whom the heroes of the mind seem mysteriously to beckon, but who fear to lack the necessary means, listen to me. Have you two hours a  day? Can you under to keep them jealously, to use them ardently...?" 

3. Be pure.

"Now, passions and vices relax attention, scatter it, lead it astray; and they injure the judgment in roundabout ways..." 

"To calm our passions is to awake in ourselves the sense of the universal; to correct ourselves is to bring out the sense of the true." 

"Purity of thought requires purity of soul; that is a general and undeniable truth."

"Intemperance is a sin because it destroys us; and we have the obligation to use life wisely because we have the obligation to live." 

4. Accept yourself.

"To accept ourselves as we are is to obey God and to make sure of good results. Does nature seek to exceed her powers?" 

"Seek the approval of God; be intent only on truth, for yourself and others; do not be a slave; make yourself worthy to say with Paul: 'The word of God is not bound.'" 

"Altiora te ne quaesieris, do not seek the things above you." - Thomas Aquinas 

"You alone can do well what is laid upon you; you would do badly what your neighbor will do well. God is satisfied in all." 

"When a reproach is leveled at you, instead of rebelling interiorly or exteriorly like an animal bristling up, observe like a man the bearing of what is said; be impersonal and honest. If the criticism is right and you wrong, do you mean to resist truth?"

5. Cultivate a spirit of prayer and eternity while studying.

"Every study is a study of eternity." - Van Helmont 

"Intelligence only plays its part fully when it fulfills a religious function, that is, when it worships the supreme Truth in its minor and scattered appearances."

6. Take care of yourself physically.

"Live as much as possible in the open air...Windows open or partly open day and night when prudence allows, frequent deep breathing exercises, combined with movements that amplify them and make them normal, walks before and after work or even combined with work according to the Greek tradition; all these practices are excellent." 

"Those who do not find time to take exercise must find time to be ill." 

"Look after your diet. Light food, plain, moderate in quantity and simply cooked, will enable you to work more freely and alertly."

7. Simplify your life. 

"If you want to entertain knowledge as your guest, you do not need rare furniture, nor numerous servants. Much peace, a little beauty, certain conveniences that save time, are all that is necessary." 

"Money and attention squandered on trifles would be much better spent in collecting a library, providing for instructive travel or restful holidays, going to hear music which rekindles inspiration, and so on."

8. Be silent. Seek silence. 

"Therefore, be slow to speak and slow to go to those places where people speak, because in many words the spirit is poured out like water; by your amiability to all, purchase the right really to frequent only a few whose society is profitable; avoid, even with these, the excessive familiarity which drags one down and away from one's purpose; do not run after news that occupies the mind to no purpose; do not busy yourself  with the sayings and doings of the world, that is with such as have no moral or intellectual bearing; avoid useless comings and goings which waste hours and fill the mind with wandering thoughts. These are the conditions of that sacred thing, quiet recollection." 

"Before giving out truth, acquire it for yourself..."

9. Rest truly.

"When evening comes, [most people] lay down the reins and throw off thought, giving their minds up to dissipation which is supposed to refresh them, dining, smoking, playing cards, talking noisily, frequenting the theaters or the music halls, gaping at the cinemal, and going to bed with minds 'relaxed.' Yes, indeed, relaxed; but like a violin with all its strings completely slackened. What a labor next day to tune them all up again! I know industrialists who find their relaxation in reading Pascal, Montaigne, Ronsard, Racine. Deep in a comfortable armchair well lit from behind, beside the fire, their family around them, quiet, or in the buzz of pleasant activity, they live awhile after having toiled all day." 

"In spite of the passionate and self-interested illusion of those who maintain that a part of man must be set aside for the life of pleasure, dissipation is not rest, it is exhaustion. Rest cannot be found in scattering one's energies. Rest means giving up all effort and withdrawing towards the fount of life; it means restoring our strength, not expending it foolishly."

"Half-work, which is half-rest, is good neither for rest nor for work."

"Many thinkers have found habitual relief and attraction in stories of travel and exploration, in poetry, art criticism, reading of plays, memoirs. Each one has his tastes, and taste in this matter is the capital thing. One thing alone according to St. Thomas gives real rest: joy; to seek distraction in something boring would be a delusion."

10. Be zealous to know and concentrate.

"The intelligence is like a child, whose lips never cease their why." 

"The great enemy of knowledge is our indolence; that native sloth which shrinks from effort..." 

"Let each taste take entire hold of you, as if it were the only one."

11. Read that which will edify your mind.

"What we are proscribing is the passion for reading, the uncontrolled habit, the poisoning of the mind by excess of mental food, the laziness in disguise which prefers easy familiarity with others' thought to personal effort."  

"The mind is dulled, not fed, by inordinate reading, it is made gradually incapable of reflection and concentration, and therefore of production..." 

"The wise worker, preserving his self-control, calm and clear-headed, reads only what he wants to retain, retains only what will be useful, manages his brain prudently and does not abuse it by cramming it absurdly." 

"Choose your books. Do not trust interested advertising and catchy titles. Have devoted and expert advisers."

12. Read the book inside yourself.

"In ourselves also there are volumes and texts of great value that we do not read." 

"Truth is all men's ancestor; wisdom addresses her invitation to all; we must not leave to the greatest the monopoly of making a superior use of what is offered us." 

"It is my duty to be myself. What is the good of repeating others? However unimportant I am, I know that God makes none of His spiritual beings without a purpose -- He does not make the least natural object without a purpose. I am obeying my Master by setting myself free. I am alive, I am not a mere reflection, and I want to live a fruitful life." 

"A book is a signal, a stimulant, a helper, an initiator -- it is not a substitute and it is not a chain. Our thought must be what we ourselves are."

13. Be at peace so that you may remember.

"Agitation of mind is opposed to this operation [of memory], and therefore a peaceful life, passion-free, is necessary for the good use of memory as for all the intellectual functions." 

"Keep your inspiration lofty, your attention keen; be sensitively responsive to truth, be eager in research, and you will remember enough."

14. Take some notes.

"Notes, which are a sort of external memory, a 'paper memory' Montaigne called them, must bear a very small proportion to reading; but they can cover more ground than memory, they can supply for it, and so take the strain off it and help our work in a measure that is hard to assign." 

"Keep notes made after thinking, and with moderation." 

"Reading itself should awaken reflection, and we have already said that a borrowed passage can become our own to the point of not differing at all from an original creation. I read, and I write while reading; but I write down what I think after contact with someone else..."

15. Write in the light of truth, individuality, and simplicity.

"To speak is to listen to one's soul and to the truth within it. To speak alone and wordlessly, as one does by writing, is to listen and perceive with a freshness of sensation like that of a man who rises in the early morning and holds his ear to nature."

"The qualities of style may be set out under as many headings as you will; but they can all be contained, I think, in these three words: truth, individuality, and simplicity; unless you prefer to sum it all up in a single formula; one must write truly." 

"Embellishment is an offense against thought, unless it be an expedient to conceal its void." 

"The beautiful is the removal of all superfluity." - Michelangelo

16. Work when you are sad.

"In knowledge, as in everything, one attains salvation only through the cross. Dissatisfaction with oneself, sluggishness of inspiration, the indifference of those about one, envy, misunderstandings, sarcastic remarks, acts of injustice, the desertion of leaders, the faling-away of friends, all these things can be part of the cross, and all of them come in their turn."

"Work cures the pain of work and those of the worker; it is the foe of annoyances, sickness, and sin; it lifts us into a high region where the vexations of life and the weaknesses of the body find alleviation. The urge it rouses, the direction it gives to our energy, are an anodyne for worry and release us from wretched preoccupations." 

"When I ask myself what remedy I shall use against the fits of anxiety and dullness that come over me in my work, I find only one answer: work. What stimulus can I find for my courage, if I lose heart about my work? Work...Work is the remedy, work is the balm, work carries me along through every trial. Add to work its companion, silence, and its inspiration, prayer..." 

"Sadness and doubt kill inspiration; but they kill it only when one yields to them. To rise above them by Christian joy is to rekindle the drooping flame."

within, without the battles raging on

I confess the things, I am afraid of
Thorns and danger just around the bend
I pray for tongues of fire and bands of angels
To come and circle ‘round me like a fence

Chorus: I lift my eyes to the hills,
where comes my help?
I lift my hands, empty hands
I can’t help myself, can’t help myself
No, I can’t help myself

My enemies surround me like an army

Within without the battles raging on
I pray the spirit would be strong and mighty
For courage through the night until the dawn

Oh trust the lord, my soul and all that is in me
Oh trust the light to show my darkest parts
With wounds of truth and love, a friend who has known me
A fool would keep his secrets in his heart

honor for shame

johnny's cashin' all his chips tonight
boots for bare feet, drums for dead beats

johnny's dumping all his pills in the river
burlap for silk, honey for milk

oh to be chosen, oh to be the one
oh to be forgiven, oh to be home

mary's coolin' all her red fever
love for perfume, water for wounds

mary's holding all of her children
honor for shame, blessing for pain

won't You carry me
like You carried them?
won't You carry me?

[The Emporiums, "Carry Me"]

turning men's wandering eyes towards first causes

"You, young man, who understand this language and to whom the heroes of the mind seem mysteriously to beckon, but who fear to lack the necessary means, listen to me. Have you two hours a day? Can you undertake to keep them jealously, to use them ardently, and then, being of those who have authority in the Kingdom of God, can you drink the chalice of which these pages would wish to make you savor the exquisite and bitter taste? If so, have confidence. Nay, rest in quiet certainty.

If you are compelled to earn your living, at least you will earn it without sacrificing, as many do, the liberty of your soul. If you are alone, you will but be more violently thrown back on your noble purposes. Most great men followed some calling. Many have declared that the two hours I postulate suffice for an intellectual career. Learn to make the best use of that limited time; plunge every day of your life into the spring which quenches and yet ever renews your thirst.

Do you want to have a humble share in perpetuating wisdom among men, in gathering up the inheritance of the ages, in formulating the rules of the mind for the present time, in discovering facts and causes, in turning men's wandering eyes towards first causes and their hearts towards supreme ends, in reviving if necessary some dying flame, in organizing the propaganda of truth and goodness? That is the lot reserved for you. It is surely worth a little extra sacrifice; it is worth steadily pursuing with jealous passion."

[A.G. Sertillanges]

how long will you hide from me?

Rains, how they fall

On the righteous and the wicked
Without reason
that my eyes can see.
And grace, how it falls
As it will, as He wills it
Without counsel, as he wills it, free.
For the good
Hurts so bad, pain and tears are my food
For the good…
Lord how long, Oh how long
Will you hide from me?
Will you hide?

"Eighty-Eight" by Sandra McCracken

Listen to the song here.

princes and prisoners

Check out my friend Rachel's song "All Cedars"! The lyrics are based on the same psalm where I got my title for my blog. :)

Here are the lyrics:

from the earth
sea monsters and all deeps
fire and hail, snow and clouds
storms performing at his word
mountains and all hills
fruit trees and all cedars
beasts and all the cattle
creeping things and fowl

from the heavens
in the heights
all his angels, all his hosts
sun and moon
all stars of light
heav’nly bodies of the night

princes and all judges of the earth
young men and virgins
old men and children
all oppressed, all hungry
prisoners, the blind, the lowly
righteous and all wanderers
fatherless and widows

praise

he has lifted up
a horn of salvation for us
and we will not remain silent
beholding creator-savior, amazed
loosened tongues and opened mouths
the sound of praises rushing out
how could we keep quiet?
all creation, your creator praise

all princes, all prisoners
all stars and all cedars

true blessedness

"As he said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, 'Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!' But he said, 'Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!'"

Luke 11:27-28

phantoms in the early dark, canaries in the mines

ghosts and clouds
and nameless things
squint your eyes and hope real hard
maybe sprout wings

[the mountain goats]

men.

Darrin Patrick - Church Planter from Acts 29 Network

no greater burden in all of life

"I have come to the conclusion that we have no greater burden in all of life than our own inflated egos. No outside force has the power to betray and mislead us the way our own egos do. Pride talks us out of forgiving and steers us away from risking. Pride cheats us of intimacy, because intimacy requires transparency. Pride is a slave driver like no other, and if it can't drive us to destruction, it will drive us to distraction. Think about the madness this one little trait can cause:

If we can't be the most attractive, at least we can be the best at something.
And if we can't be the best at something, we can at least be the hardest working.
And if we can't be the hardest working, we can at least be the most congenial.
And if we can't be the most congenial, we can at least be the most noticeable.
And if we can't be the most noticeable, we can at least be the most religious.
And if we can't be the most religious, we can at least be the most exhausted.

And it never ends, because big egos insist on our being a 'the.' Not just an 'a.'"

[Beth Moore, from So Long, Insecurity]

i want to love you until the end of the line

Great Lake Swimmers, "Ballad of a Fisherman's Wife"

a stronghold for the oppressed

"The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you,

 for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you."

Psalm 9:9-10

this pain pours the sweetest wine

There's a hand reaching out for you, quieting your anxious mind
There's a voice like a wind in the trees, if you turn it you'll find
Oh, la la la
There's a book and I look inside on the pages there I see
It's inscribed with a crimson hue, but the name is not yet me
So, I say, la la la la la la
There's something beautiful
Something beautiful
There's something beautiful coming 'round
There's a branch and I'm grafted in
Like a grape on the truest vine
Born to be bruised, I've been crushed and abused
But this pain pours the sweetest wine
I sing la la la la la la la
One bright morning when this life is o'er
I'll be fine

the sum of a million little things

"Holiness is the sum of a million little things — the avoidance of little evils and little foibles, the setting aside of little bits of worldliness and little acts of compromise, the putting to death of little inconsistencies and little indiscretions, the attention to little duties and little dealings, the hard work of little self-denials and little self-restraints, the cultivation of little benevolences and little forbearances."

- Kevin DeYoung

when grace has left me

"What, then, am I to hope in, what am I to put my trust in, but in the great mercy of God alone, in nothing but the hope of heavenly grace? I may have at my side good men, devout brethren, loyal friends; I may have holy books or beautifully-written treatises, sweet-sounding chants and hymns; but it's little help they can give me, little spiritual zest, when grace has left me and I am alone with my poverty."

[from The Imitation of Christ]

chocolate, chocolate, AACK!

My niece Lucy as my sister as Tina Fey as Liz Lemon as Cathy

you know, some girls are bright as the morning and some are blessed with a dark turn of mind

Now I see the bones in the river

And I feel the wind through the pine

And I hear the shadows a-calling

To a girl with a dark turn of mind

[Gillian Welch, "Dark Turn of the Mind"]

subversive

"Plus, it's very subversive to wear a bow tie. You can't imagine how jolly everything is."

[from "Clown" by Chelsey Minnis]

Read entire poem here, and then smile. :)

be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions

When the Stranger says: "What is the meaning of this city?"

"Do you huddle close together because you love each other?"
What will you answer?
"We all dwell together to make money from each other"? 

or "This is a community"?

And the Stranger will depart and return to the desert.
O my soul, be prepared for the coming of the Stranger,
Be prepared for him who knows how to ask questions.

 

If humility and purity be not in the heart,

they are not in the home:

and if they are not in the home, they are not in the City.

 Why should men love the Church? Why should they love her laws?

She tells them of Life and Death, and of all that they would forget.

She is tender where they would be hard, and hard where they like to be soft.

She tells them of Evil and Sin, and other unpleasant facts.

O Father we welcome your words,
And we will take heart for the future,

Remembering the past.

Our age is an age of moderate virtue
And of moderate vice

When men will not lay down the Cross
Because they will never assume it.

Yet nothing is impossible, nothing,

To men of faith and conviction.
Let us therefore make perfect our will.

O God, help us.

[from "Choruses from 'The Rock'" by T.S. Eliot]

green Caroline

"Suwee" by Mountain Man

I've probably listened to this 50 times in the past two days. The video is weird and awkward, but the song is beautiful...

for our good always

“When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’

[Deuteronomy 6:20-25]

shelter and books

 

"Shelter" by Shaun Ferguson

 

 "Books" by Shaun Ferguson

For more beautiful paintings, check out his website.

little things

Little things console us because little things afflict us.

[Blaise Pascal]

postcard beauty

[Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907)
Adams Memorial, modeled 1886-1891]

I have this sculpture on a postcard, and it's so beautiful I can't bear to send it to anyone.